


the long haul

by crowkag



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: College Student Peter Parker, Friendship, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Platonic Relationships, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man), yeah i really dont have a lotta tags for this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27386362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowkag/pseuds/crowkag
Summary: They slowed themselves along a tight bend, passing a couple deer poking their heads out from behind a tree trunk, and when they straightened back out, May twisted in her seat with wide eyes.“He’ll be okay, right? I know he kept saying he would be, but—oh, shit. What if we didn’t buy him enough soap?”At that, Tony couldn’t help laughing. It was small and from his chest, barely more than a rumble, but it earned him an indignant whack on his arm. The motion only made him laugh again, louder the second time around.“I’m sorry, May. It’s just—soap?”“Yes, soap!”(or: Peter's in college now, and May and Tony are taking it about as well as can be expected.)
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the 2020 US election is killing me right now so here's a tiny thing meant to distract myself for a little bit. it sort of fulfills the first two prompts of comfortember, rescue and first night. if i post any more for the event then i may turn it into a series.
> 
> so anyways, here's may and tony freaking out about their kid. oh and this fits into my fic "a snapshot moment" btw.
> 
> no real warnings except cursing. enjoy !! :')

On the drive back, May cracked first. Her hands fumbled with the volume of the radio, turning it down just a smidge.

“Got a bit of a headache,” she said, playing it off with a smile. Tony took a hand off the steering wheel, switched the station from pounding 1980s rock to a classical station Pepper would probably listen to before bed, then reached across the space to flip May’s visor down. Bright orange sunbeams, fierce and blinding, had started shooting through the tree branches overhead.

May adjusted his own visor in return and folded her hands down in her lap, settling into the next couple minutes in silence.

When she reached for the dial next, the tip of her thumbnail was stripped of its daisy yellow polish. She found the rock station again, kept the frequency there for a beat, then flipped to a talk show host ranting about asinine football plays. Another turn to a pop song, then back to the talk show, then all the way over to a country station, then to rock once again. A burst of static released with every shift of the numbers on the dashboard, the interval between each one shortening as May’s fingers acted faster. It was a palpable buildup of frustration spelled out inside airwaves.

Eventually, after finding the classical station again, May just pressed the volume dial in and turned the radio off entirely. Letting out a huff, she sat back heavily in her seat and stared out the passenger side window.

Tony waited. It was what he’d been doing since they’d started their four-hour journey back into New York state. Biding his time until May commenced whatever freakout session she’d been desperately trying to bury these past few weeks, just so he could comfort her while pretending he wasn’t panicking right alongside her.

They slowed themselves along a tight bend, passing a couple deer poking their heads out from behind a tree trunk, and when they straightened back out, May twisted in her seat with wide eyes.

“He’ll be okay, right?” she blurted out, and _there_ it was. “I know he kept saying he would be, but—oh, shit. What if we didn’t buy him enough soap?”

At that, Tony couldn’t help laughing. It was small and from his chest, barely more than a rumble, but it earned him an indignant whack on his arm. The motion only made him laugh again, louder the second time around.

“I’m sorry, May. It’s just—soap?”

“Yes, soap!”

“We bought him an entire _shelf_ of body wash. I was there, I saw it. You quite literally put your arm on the shelf at Target and knocked the whole stock of Suave Ocean Breeze into our cart.”

“Damn straight I did. Who knows how many showers he’ll want to take?”

Tony flicked on his turn signal and smoothed them out into a left-lane.

“If the bathrooms are anything like I remember, then he’d be smart to avoid them as long as he can.”

“That’s not the point, Stark.”

“Then what _is_ the point, Miss Parker?”

“The _point_ is that he’s—he just needs more soap, okay? More soap, and—and toothpaste, and pencils, and batteries!” She ran a hand up into her hairline, a couple strands knocking loose and flipping over her forehead. “What if that flashlight we bought him dies and the dorm loses power and he’s all by himself in the dark? With nothing to help him see because he used all his batteries for his calculator? Those graphing ones take four whole double-As, Tony.”

“Then he’ll just pull out the emergency backup flashlight.”

“And if that one dies too?”

“You’re naming a lot of very specific, highly unlikely scenarios here.”

“This coming from the king of paranoia himself.”

“May—”

“We should turn around, Tony. Should we turn around? Rescue him? We should. That’s our job, to save him. Right? Right, yes. Absolutely. Rescue mission begins now, spin the wheel.”

“May, we shouldn’t just pluck him back off campus.”

“And I shouldn’t just accept that he’s okay with all this!” Her voice cracked on the end, trembling in a heartbeat of vulnerability, and she looked away. Took an exhale, deep, shaky, with a visible rise and drop to her shoulders.

“Him being so far away from home,” she continued. “I’m… I can’t… I _don’t_ want to believe that it’s anything more than stubbornness on his part.”

She sounded smaller all of a sudden. Not in volume, but in confidence, and in a way that Tony could only recognize—after knowing this woman for ten years, through the loving highs and impossibly painful lows—as the greatest display of Not May Parker possible.

He sighed, understanding that somebody still had to be the voice of reason here. It was their unspoken tradeoff, that the first to freak was the first to be comforted. Nine times out of ten it was Tony who panicked first over any Peter-related subject, and May would be the soothing hand on a trembling shoulder.

Except Tony knew he had forfeited their typical roles the moment May’s fingers started fiddling with the radio volume.

Scratch that. It’d been the moment they’d arrived on the MIT campus.

Or, actually, it’d been before even that. Way before. Probably as far back as Peter receiving his acceptance letter at the tail end of March, and then the unveiling of the happy news over plates of Pepper’s oven-roasted chicken recipe. May had laughed in joy across the table, smiled big—too big, too wide—and it had left the starting crack of a fracture up the side of her face. Everything had been bound to splinter eventually, just like this.

“May,” Tony started, voice level and eyes glued on the road. He would have looked over at her, but he’d come up behind some idiot who’d decided the speed limit read twenty instead of thirty-five, and now he was trying to find a solid stretch of space in the right lane before he went into a quick pass. “This _will_ be good for him. Better than good. After the… after those five years, and then Europe, and—all of that. All that shit? He needs this. It’ll be like proof to him that he’s okay. That he’s still _allowed_ to leave. Still allowed to be his own person.”

May scoffed, though not unkindly. It was a wet sound glazed over with unshed tears.

“You’re just repeating what he’s been telling us for months now, Tony,” she said, pulling her glasses off with one hand and wiping a sweater sleeve under her eyes.

“I know I am, because it’s all true. Words of wisdom from a brilliant kid who runs circles around us in every department possible, May. I mean, look at us. We’re a couple of piping hot messes. You’re sitting there dripping snot all over this rental we have to return in ten hours—”

“Am not.”

“—and you know I would _gladly_ join you in the empty nester cry fest if it weren’t for this fucking _moron_ in front of me thinking they’re manning a sewing machine instead of an SUV.”

May sniffled, gave a wet chuckle, and gestured outwards.

“Just honk the horn.”

“I’m not gonna honk the horn.”

“ _I_ would honk the horn.”

“Okay, well. When we trade seats at the next rest stop in fifteen miles, you can lay into the steering wheel all you want.”

May laughed again behind closed lips, a muffled sound before she fell silent again.

Overhead, the sun was all but gone, leaving the sky a shade of deep, rich, speckled-white purple that nobody ever saw under the glaring lights of a big city. Only the clouds spanning the length of the horizon had semi-circles of dusty pink at their rounded edges. Tony hoped that Peter would learn to enjoy the view, that it could ease whatever pang he’d no doubt feel every time he squinted past his dorm room window and was smacked with a lack of towering skyscraper tips.

On the asphalt in front of them, the driver swung leftward onto a twisting side road without putting on their turn signal. Tony cursed under his breath, then muttered a relieved “ _Finally_ ” before adding some pressure on the gas. Beside him, May leant back against the headrest and stared up at the whitened headliner of their U-Haul rental.

“He’ll be okay,” she murmured. “Of course he will. He’s smart and funny and so incredibly kind in ways I can’t begin to understand sometimes, and he makes me proud every single day. So I know he’ll be fine. I do.” Tony shot a glance her way, returning her sad, resigned smile when she rolled her head to stare at him, one eyebrow raised. “I guess the question I really meant to ask is will _we_ be okay?”

Tony hummed, reaching for the radio dial. He found that classical station again, set the volume to the barest brush against their eardrums.

“Oh, without Pete around? Absolutely not. We’ll have no center to keep us from exploding. Just a couple of piping hot, Peterless messes, up in flames. Pepper will have to pull out the fire extinguisher we keep in the pantry.”

He got a poke into his shoulder.

“Hey, at least we deserve the hot descriptor,” May said.

“Mm. I’m told the grey hairs do wonders for our complexions.”

May laughed at that. Then she bent down, pulling off her sneakers and drawing her feet up onto the seat. Tony wrinkled his nose and cracked the windows.

“Why do you always insist on doing that?” he grumbled.

“Because I know it pisses you off.”

Then she changed the station back to 1980s rock, grinned when Tony boosted the volume up, and began shouting out the lyrics right alongside him on the latter half of Immigrant Song.

It was as good a distraction as any for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the only college campus i know is my own so if there are any inaccuracies, oh well.
> 
> big thank u to my friend el for suggesting the title, love u :) 
> 
> <3000


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hi, May!”
> 
> “Hi, sweetie!” Her voice sounded overly cheery, too loud in the small living space. “Things going okay so far?”
> 
> “Yeah, all fine over here, just—sorry, is somebody dying?”
> 
> May waved a hand. 
> 
> “Oh, that’s just Tony. Got some water down his windpipe, nothing we can’t handle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! i typed this in a rush of inspiration at like 3am the other night. i love may and tony so very much :)
> 
> enjoy <3

Tony choked on his wine the second the phone rang.

He and May had swore last night—to themselves and each other—that whenever their kid’s caller ID popped up today, they would play it _cool_.

Except that all went out the window when there was liquor up his nose. _The Devil Wears Prada_ sat paused on May’s television, Tony’s hips and back were aching from sitting cross-legged on the rug, and now he was coughing and spluttering and his eyes were stinging.

He should have expected this, really.

“May—” he choked out, setting his glass aside before he had a chance to spill it. “He’s calling, Peter’s—” He kept on coughing, kept hacking up his fucking lungs and wiping at his eyes, all while May’s phone went buzzing against the wooden coffee table, the vibrations jumping it closer to the edge. Tony grabbed it up just as May came sliding in from the kitchen on striped socks, a bowl in her hands and cheeks stuffed with popcorn.

“Well, are you gonna answer it?” she said around her full mouth, rushing over. Tony held up an index finger in a _just gimme a second here_ gesture, and she rolled her eyes. Swallowing, she plopped herself down on the couch hard enough to bounce upwards and placed the popcorn bowl on the table. One hand deftly pulled the phone from Tony’s fingers while the other gave his back a couple hard thumps.

“Shit, May, hold _on_ ,” Tony wheezed. He flung his arm out in a desperate reach for the phone, but May just held it aloft over their heads.

“Oh, it’s a video call,” she noted. Her thumb hit the answer button and Peter’s voice flooded in over the sounds of Tony’s soul trying to escape his body.

“Hi, May!”

“Hi, sweetie!” Her voice sounded overly cheery, too loud in the small living space. “Things going okay so far?”

“Yeah, all fine over here, just—sorry, is somebody dying?”

May waved a hand.

“Oh, that’s just Tony. Got some water down his windpipe, nothing we can’t handle.”

She moved her arm so Tony was in view on the camera, giving his back another forceful thump as she did so. Tony heard a muffled laugh and lifted his head to see Peter hiding his mouth behind a fist, clearly trying to conceal a smile.

“Hey, bud,” he rasped.

“Hi, Tony. Everything good?”

Feeling more like he was getting himself under control, Tony raised a shaky thumbs-up, clearing his throat loudly in one second and sniffing in another.

“Oh, I’m just peachy keen, Pete.” He started pushing himself off the floor with exhausted, stilted movements. May hooked her free arm under his armpit and helped haul him up the rest of the way onto the couch cushion beside her. “Got everything else unpacked?”

“Almost. Seriously though, you okay?”

“Yep!” Another cough, a final clearing of the throat. “Just fine. Wasn’t even the good water I choked on.” May smacked his shoulder and he prodded her bicep with his elbow, putting on a large smile. “So, tell us how orientation went.”

Peter’s face visibly shifted from mild amusement into wide-eyed, sparkling excitement. In spite of the warmth that flooded his chest at the sight, Tony’s posture stiffened in a strange display of nerves. He felt May do the same beside him.

“Okay, so! I only met my group members today, got their numbers and all that. And it was kinda boring, honestly? Like we didn’t _do_ a whole lot outside icebreakers, but everybody seems pretty cool. I’m taking a lotta classes with this one girl in my group named Jayna, so it’s nice to know somebody going in, right?”

“Right,” Tony and May said in unison. May’s voice sounded as suspiciously clogged up as Tony’s felt.

“And we got shown around campus a little bit,” Peter continued. “Just the buildings where we’d be having most of our classes. And like, I remembered some stuff from when I toured with you, Tony, but it feels way different now that I’m actually _here_.”

May wrapped a hand around Tony’s wrist.

“Are you excited to start?” she asked.

Peter nodded.

“Definitely. I think I’m gonna like it here a lot. I mean, it’s weird being so far away from New York but—yeah.”

Tony leaned in, perhaps a little too fast.

“You’re gonna do great things there, kiddo.”

May moved up to join him, brushing his shoulder. She drew the phone a little closer.

“And we mean it. We are so proud of you, sweetie.”

Peter’s smile was blinding.

“Thank you,” he said. His gaze held across the screen, caught in a silent moment of gratitude and love. The edges of his face were blurry, fuzzy against the dim background and in the wake of horrible college campus wifi. It made Tony’s chest seize up in a weird sense of homesickness.

And then Peter shrugged, scratching behind the shell of his ear.

“Anyways, yeah. Just wanted to call for a little bit, fill you guys in on stuff. Jayna’s gonna be here soon to get some dinner, so—” He stopped all of a sudden, blinking and leaning forward. “Oh! Hold on a second.” He reached his hand out, and the camera shifted upwards before the video call greyed out, the words “Peter’s camera is off” coming across May’s screen.

The air got tense in pent-up anticipation. Tony felt May’s fingers squeeze down more forcefully around the circumference of his wrist, her hand shaking in tiny, trembling movements against the added pressure. No glance was shared between them as they sat there, seconds crossing into eternities.

Tony’s chest was tight. He could _feel_ more grey hairs sprouting at his temples, and he knew he was a dramatic person by nature, but this was just… something else. This was too much.

Peter’s face popped back up in the next stretch of forever and it eased some of the strain, though not nearly enough.

“Sorry, I was just responding to Jayna. She’s almost at my dorm hall, so...” He trailed off, and Tony raised an eyebrow.

“So… you gotta go?”

“Yeah.” He sounded on the edge of apologetic about it. May smiled and released her vice grip on Tony’s wrist to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“Okay, sweetheart. We’ll let ya go, then.”

Tony reached for May’s knee and squeezed.

“Try giving us a call tomorrow if you can, alright? In between your busy schedule.”

Something in Peter’s face seemed to shift, knowingly. His eyes, maybe, like he could see right through them.

(He could, of course. Even when he was over two hundred miles away.)

“Okay. I love you guys.”

“We love you too,” May and Tony replied as one.

Peter waved.

“Bye.”

“Bye, Pete.”

And then the call disconnected, a little bit faster than either of them had ever expected.

The apartment was silent as they sat there. Meryl Streep’s face remained frozen on the television in front of them, judging them. Mocking them. That familiar sensation of mutual understanding floated in the air, heavy and empty, lingering and fleeting, too much or not enough at all.

Slowly, May’s arm dropped, her phone settling in her lap. She took a long, deep breath through her nose.

“So,” she said.

Tony tilted backwards, spine pressing into the couch cushions and neck angling towards the ceiling.

“So.”

“Guess this is all really happening, right?”

“Sure looks like it.”

May hummed. She moved her phone from hand to hand, nails clacking lightly against her screen as she did so. Then she leaned forward, placed the device face-down on the coffee table and drew back. The remote control and the rim of Tony’s wine glass were gripped between the fingers of her right hand, and the bowl of popcorn was balanced in her left. She pushed Tony’s drink into his hand, then brought her feet onto the couch and tucked her side into the pillows.

“I’m babysitting Morgan this weekend,” she said, shoving her mouth with a fistful of popcorn.

“I figured,” Tony said, swirling his wine around in the glass.

May hit play and the world spun on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just assume that they both got back from dropping peter off & just had a full blown sadness hour sleepover into the next day. because me too.
> 
> also, fun fact, jayna is one of my marvel ocs!! except in my Own Personal Marvel Universe, peter stays close to home & goes to school in nyc, and that's where he and jayna meet :) either way they're cool college friends who meet during orientation lol.
> 
> anyways, thank u for reading!! i've got a million WIPs i'm working on right now except i'm also in my last semester of classes so. finding time is hard. pray for me <3


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